Celebrate this Holi with Dry Fruit Kulfi

Traditionally Maharashtrians celebrate Holi with a festive lunch whose piéce de resistance is Puran Poli, a delicious bread made with refined wheat flour, stuffed with boiled jaggery and Chana dal and roasted on a girdle.

This poli is eaten hot with dollops of ghee (clarified butter) or cold with milk. However it is not as easy to make as it sounds; one needs to actually watch it being prepared to get an idea. And later plenty of practice making it!

 

 

With the mercury touching more than 35 degrees Celsius at places, Dry Fruit Kulfi seems an attractive option this Holi. It is easy to make and needs 2.5 to 3 hours of refrigation.

 

 

Ingredients:  

Equal measure of milk, cream, milk powder, dry fruit of your choice, sugar as per taste. So if you take one cup of milk, every other ingredient would be one cup each. 

A pinch of saffron.

 

Method:

Mix the milk, milk powder, cream in a bowl. Add sugar as per taste. Whizz once with a hand-mixer. Pour in a plastic dish. Add the chopped dry fruit and saffron.

Stir once. Set the refrigator on 'high' half an hour before putting in the Kulfi mixture. Put in the deep freeze. Chill for 2.5 hours.

 

 

Note:

 

For dry fruit, you can add pistachios, dried fig (anjeer) pieces, soaked and peel almonds and cashewnuts.

 

Dried fruits can also be substituted with Mango pulp or strawberry crush. If using any of these please keep in mind the sugar already present in these pulps.

 

 

Of course, I'm planning to keep the Kulfi for night. For lunch it's Puran Poli!

Indian Fruit Fusion

Here's my favorite fruit recipe for winter. Can be served as dessert or eaten with chapati, roti or puri. The beauty of this recipe is there is no specific proportion in which the fruits are to be taken. Curds should be sufficient to cover the fruits.  

 

Method

 

Take any of the following fruits-

Apples, bananas, chikoo, guava - diced

oranges, sweet limes – peel off the thin skin off the individual slices and then halve each slice.

Pomegranate peeled

Green seedless grapes – you can halve these

Raisins, sultanas – soaked in water for 15 minutes

Almonds, cashewnuts, walnut – chopped

 

In a bowl add thick curds. Add sugar to taste. Whip this mixture with a spoon. Add the chopped fruit. Stir to mix.

Refrigerate till cold.

Serve.  

nutty about coconut

Coconut is an integral part of Indian cuisine, festivals and religious occasions.

The fresh coconut is broken into two halves, the sweet water drunk immediately. Then the white flesh is scraped. Almost every Indian home has a coconut desiccating instrument. Fresh, desiccated coconut stored in deep freeze can stay good for a week or more.

   

Celebrate this festive season with a quick sweet preparation.

 

Creamy Coconut Squares

 

Ingredients:

1 cup desiccated coconut  

1/2 cup sugar

½ cup milk powder

3 tablespoons milk

1 tablespoon chana dal flour (besan)

1 tablespoon ghee (clarified butter)

 

Preparation

In a wok (kadai) mix all above ingredients vigorously together with a spoon.

Place the wok on low heat. Spread the ghee from the sides of the wok evenly. Cook the mixture, stirring all the time till it thickens. Remove from heat and let it cool for a few minutes.

Grease a plate with a little ghee. Spoon the mixture onto the plate and flatten it evenly.

Cut into squares, garnish with sliced almonds and serve.

These squares can be stored in the refrigerator for a couple of days.  

 

 

Note: Milk is added for moistening the mixture. In case you use condensed milk instead of milk powder, you may need to reduce the proportion of sugar and milk.

A date with dessert

A real quickie, this -

 

Take a cupful of dates (the red-brownish variety).

Clean and chop into quarters.

Fry in pure ghee (clarified butter) so the dates are crisp.

Let it cool to room temperature.

 

The dish tastes heavenly as it is. Can be eaten as an energy snack. You can also add these dates to gajjar halwa, kheer, or as topping for vanilla ice cream!     

 

 

 © Alaka